Deficit Panel's Leaders Push Cuts

Everyone realizes that this is a difficult task and we will have to wait for the final report.  Wisely, other than Judd Gregg who is on the panel, Republicans did not comment.  Until the whole report is studied,  just as in ObamaCare, the devil will be in the details.  One good point, I don't see any mention of a VAT in the article.


Excerpt:  Lawmaker reaction was mixed, suggesting any final plan will be weaker than the one released Wednesday. Sen. Judd Gregg (R., N.H.), the top Republican on the Budget Committee and a panel member, called it "a genuine product that deserves very serious attention."

But liberal panel members were less enthusiastic. Sen. Richard Durbin (D., Ill.) said he wouldn't vote for it, saying that "there are things in there that I hate like the devil hates holy water."

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Associated Press

Erskine Bowles, co-chairman of the deficit commission, outlined proposals Wednesday.

Some important interest groups were sharply critical, particularly over curbs on entitlement spending. The plans authors "just told working Americans to 'Drop Dead,"' said AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka. "Especially in these tough economic times, it is unconscionable to be proposing cuts to the critical economic lifelines for working people, Social Security and Medicare."

The conservative Americans for Tax Reform also blasted the plan. "It confirms what everyone has known—this commission is merely an excuse to raise net taxes on the American people," the group said in a written statement. Supporting the plan would violate the group's no-new-taxes pledge, which many Republicans and some Democrats in Congress have signed, it warned.
Read full WSJ article here.